Style Evolution

From Figurative Expressionism to Abstract Verticalism

Luc Peire (Bruges 1916 – Paris 1994) evolved from Expressionism through a personal reduction and stylization of the human figure to presenting human beings as spiritual beings, symbolised in vertical movement and situated in a balanced space.

Portrait Mrs. S. Vande Calseyde (1937) – CR 58 – photo Archives JLP Foundation

1930-1940: apprenticeship - influence Permeke

As a young art student in Bruges (1930-1935), Ghent (1932-1935) and Antwerp (1935-1940, under Gustave Van de Woestijne) Luc Peire learns sublimely the academic techniques of painting (Portrait Mrs. S. Vande Calseyde), but is also captivated by Constant Permekes’ ‘non-academic’ approach. Landscapes, portraits and interiors from that period betray in composition, color and touch uninhibitedly the powerfully expressive visual language of the master from Jabbeke. But with Peire, no “exaggerated” distortion of the depicted occurs.

Portrait Mrs. S. Vande Calseyde (1937) – CR 58 – photo Archives JLP Foundation

Les Gosses (1942) – CR 141 – photo Archives JLP Foundation

1940-1946: war years - 'intimacy'

Peire’s Expressionist period, influenced by Permeke, is followed by an animist interval, better described as ‘intimate’, attested to, inter alia, by the canvas Les Gosses (Kids)

Les Gosses (1942) – CR 141 – photo Archives JLP Foundation

Study drawing after “Descent from the Cross (Lamentation of Christ)” by Giotto (fresco in Scrovegni Chapel, Padua) (1947) – IMP 396B – photo JLP Foundation Archives

1947 - 1948: influence of Italian fresco painting (Trecento and Quattrocento)

After resigning from La Jeune Peinture Belge (15 March 1947, along with Rik Slabbinck and Jack Godderis), Luc Peire is offered in the same year the opportunity to make a study trip to Italy and Sicily. He admires in particular the work of Giotto and Piero della Francesca.
From 1948, the structural principle of Italian fresco painting dominated his work. The figurative theme is elaborated on the two dimensional plane in a balanced composition with outlined shapes and colour areas.

Study drawing after “Descent from the Cross (Lamentation of Christ)” by Giotto (fresco in Scrovegni Chapel, Padua) (1947) – IMP 396B – photo JLP Foundation Archives

The Blind (1950) – CR 390 – photo Archives JLP Foundation

1949-1951: Spain - Morocco - Balearic Islands

The start of the schematization and reduction to the essence of the subject of depiction to give a harmonically structured and sophisticated play of bright colours emerges fully in 1949-1951 in Spain and in various locations in Morocco (De blinden (Blind Persons)),

In 1950 Luc Peire teaches himself al fresco painting in the Balearic Islands.

The Blind (1950) – CR 390 – photo Archives JLP Foundation

La Famille Godderis (1951) – CR 455 – photo Archives JLP Foundation

1951: key work "La Famille Godderis.

As if influenced by the monumental character of fresco painting, Luc Peire goes on to paint on larger canvases (La Famille Godderis). Luc Peire achieves a powerful schematization and reduction to the essence of the depicted subject. Elimination of detail, stylization and simplification increase the structural strength of the canvas. In the painting The Godderis Family the artist achieves a perfect synthesis of different genres (still life, portrait, interior).

La Famille Godderis (1951) – CR 455 – photo Archives JLP Foundation

Denghese family (1953) – CR 551 – photo Archives JLP Foundation.

1952-1953: Belgian Congo / Tenerife

A trip to the Belgian Congo and Tenerife (1952-1953) and the dialogue with Eduardo Westerdahl and Alberto Sartoris in Tenerife produce a new “artistic birth” in Luc Peire. From now works are created in which where man is no longer presented as an individual in a sensory, anecdotal fashion, but spiritually, universally, as “être humain”, situated in a mostly empty space and in the metaphysical colours of blue, brown, black and white.
In the staging of Peire’s paintings from 1953, the standing figures, simplified to outlined (metaphysical) silhouettes, are placed in (studio) interiors with different interior spaces, partitions, open doors, wood floor, palette, easel. ‘Man’ and ‘space’ will from now on dominate his work (Family Denghese).

Denghese family (1953) – CR 551 – photo Archives JLP Foundation.

Mwinda Mingi – 1955 – CR 626 – photo Archives JLP Foundation.

Mid-50s: further vertical abstraction - Paris

From 1954, the trend towards abstraction continues. Luc Peire enters into artistic dialogue with Spanish sculptor Josep María Subirachs and now searches out the Parisian art world where he comes into contact with Michel Seuphor and Leo Breuer.
From now on Luc Peire plays with variations of space (deep, open, compartmentalized, as decor). Human figures are thinned further in their verticality, or grouped into bundles of arabesques, influenced by the dynamics of tribal dancing encountered during his Belgian Congo tour. Afterwards, these move to a vertically (bundled) play of lines with suggestive curves and bends and the head as a circle shape (Mwinda Mingi).

Mwinda Mingi – 1955 – CR 626 – photo Archives JLP Foundation.

Pigalle (1960) – CR 758 – photo Archives JLP Foundation

In a subsequent phase he divides the plane into vertical strips and bands. The painting becomes the scene of a game with varying surfaces, transparent architectural walls (Olympos), bands of gradated colours (curtain effect) or pure lines, at times widened and deepened by a diagonal or a curve, or animated by smaller stand-alone geometric shapes (square, circle, triangle) (Pigalle).

Pigalle (1960) – CR 758 – photo Archives JLP Foundation

Olympos (1962) – CR 823 – photo JLP Foundation Archive.

Venici (1968) – CR 1012 – photo Archives JLP Foundation

From the mid-60s: abstract verticalism

From his stay in New York (1965/1966) to his last work (1992), Luc Peire, as an abstract verticalist, consistently adheres to the thin verticals, narrow or wide strips and bands of color that initially rhythm and bundle themselves serendipitously centrally: Venici, (1968), Tristan (1968) and Bruges (1968).

Venici (1968) – CR 1012 – photo Archives JLP Foundation

Tasman (1988) – CR 1368 – photo Archives JLP Foundation

Later, these are situated on the sides of a mostly monochrome field: Tasman, (1988), Pagilu (1991) and Triangle (1992).

Through his intense contact with the hushed simplicity, sheer austerity and the prevailing power of space and light of Romanesque abbey and church interiors, Luc Peire paints monochromatic greys as spiritual canvases: Sénanque, (1979), Tournus (1979) and Saintes (1982).

Tasman (1988) – CR 1368 – photo Archives JLP Foundation

Gymnopédie (1981) – CR 1306 – photo Archives JLP Foundation

Among his “musically” constructed canvases is Gymnopédie.

Gymnopédie (1981) – CR 1306 – photo Archives JLP Foundation

Graphie 1137 (1973) ILP 1137 – photo JLP Foundation Archive.

Graphie 1291 (1992) ILP 1137 – photo Archives JLP Foundation

Drawing and Graphics

Even earlier, Luc Peire had rigorously implemented verticalism in his finely nuanced pencil drawings and in “graphie”: a personal art form in which painted-in black masses (on unalit, novapan, formica, panel, perspex, plexi, etc.) are worked with the tools of an engraver. These are works in which Peire achieves a form of optical art through the virtuoso rhythmic white-black contrast in which he simultaneously involves the musical parameter of “time.
(Graphie 1137, 1973 & Graphie 1291, 1992)

Graphie 1137 (1973) ILP 1137 – photo JLP Foundation Archive.
Graphie 1291 (1992) ILP 1137 – photo Archives JLP Foundation

Environnement I (1967) – ILP 777 – photo JLP Foundation Archive.

Graphite is the essential component not only of the Groupe Lumino-Tours (1970) but also – to an “infinitely” strong degree – of his Environnement I (1967), Ambiente Mexico 68 (1968) and Environment III (1973). In extreme consistency, Luc Peire here reaches the climax of his artistic endeavor through mirror effects: verticalism, space, infinity.

Photographer-cinematographer Jean Mil made an experimental short film about Peire’s Environnement.

Environnement I (1967) – ILP 777 – photo JLP Foundation Archive.

Integration work Wall Relief 68 for J. van Breda & C° (Bank of Breda), Plantijn Moretuslei, Borgerhout-Antwerp, 1968 – photo Jean Mil

Multidisciplinary

From 1967, Luc Peire’s multidisciplinary activities increase as a painter, engraver, draughtsman and designer of architectural integrations in Belgium and in France. (e.g. Wall Relief 68 for Bank of Breda, Borgerhout-Antwerp, 1968 & Sign U.Z. Gasthuisberg, Leuven, 1992).

Integration work Wall Relief 68 for J. van Breda & C° (Bank of Breda), Plantijn Moretuslei, Borgerhout-Antwerp, 1968 – photo Jean Mil

Maine, engraving 39 (1972) – photo Archives JLP Foundation

Sign U.Z. Gasthuisberg, Leuven (1992) – photo Archives JLP Foundation

With his multiples (engraving, screen printing), architectural integrations and creations for interiors, public spaces and the urban environment, Luc Peire sought to communicate his artistic vision to a wide audience.